no, just kidding. he was tired yesterday. we start with this. he was bent on jihad and he is no dummy. that's what the feds are saying after they arrested a man in an alleged plot to dive bomb the pentagon with remote controlled planes like these. the planes would be packed with explosi explosives. the suspect is an american muslim with a physics degree. brian todd with more on how his plot was foiled. >> federal authorities arrest ad 26-year-old man from ashland, massachusetts. in an affidavit he started his plot last year by buying cell phones, modifying them to act as electrical switches for ieds and giving them to people he believed to be members of al qaeda and hoped they would be used to kill u.s. soldiers overseas according to that document. but the people he was give thing equipment to were actually undercover agents from the fbi. authorities say that he then expanded his plot to use these. model planes. they say that he planned to use them like drones operated by remote control and filled with explosives and guided by gps. federal authorities say he selected two models, f-4 phantom shown here in this picture provided with the affidavit and the f-86 saber. these models are about one-tenth the size of the aircraft. according to the charging document the targets were the pentagon and u.s. capitol. officials say his travel took pictures of the pentagon and capitol and also took pictures of east potomac park in washington. just south of the mall where according to the affidavit he planned to launch the model planes filled with explosives. according to federal officials, he also planned a ground attack. planned to bring other people into the operation and people armed with automatic weapons who would then fire on people as they tried to evacuate those buildings. but we have to stress one very important point. a u.s. law enforcement official cnn spoke with said there was no danger to the public since undercover operatives were involved very early on. this official also says that there's no information that he was connected to a foreign terrorist group but believe his intent was very clear. according to the affidavit, a cooperating witness once asked him why he wanted to blow up the pentagon. the document says he responded "that is the target to eliminate and terrify all enemies of allah." brian todd, cnn, washington. >> coming up at 7:00, fran townsend will join us. how far along is this investigation? are there more arrests coming? possibly overseas? we will ask her. the health care war could come back just in time for 2012. the justice department has now asked the supreme court to look at president obama's health care law and in particular, the requirement that people buy health insurance by the year 2014. if the court decides to hear the appeal or ruling may come by maybe late june and in the thick of an election year. today the house is expected to pass a short-term spending bill that will keep the government from partially shutting down. earlier this week senate republicans and democrats were able to strike a compromise on a deal breaker giving fema an additional $2.5 billion for disaster relief. to the trial of michael jackson's dr. conrad murray. ing the second day of testimony took jurors inside the jackson mansion on the day he died with his assistant and security chief describing a chaotic scene and raising questions about dr. murray's behavior. cnn's don lemon is covering the zpril is live outside of the courthouse in los angeles. don, the prosecution took aim at dr. murray's actions after jackson's death yesterday. what did you hear? >> they certainly did. after all of that chaos that went on for maybe an hour, hour or two before they actually got to the hospital, once they got to the hospital, carol, and michael jackson was pronounced dead, one of the security guards -- it was really odd, his assistant and security guard said it was really odd because he approached him and said hey, listen, wane to go back to the house. and because there's something that about michael jackson wouldn't want the world to know about, apparently a cream he wanted to retrieve. this is an actual bottle of propofol. michael jackson called it his milk. it looks like a cream. i'm wondering, everyone is wondering, that's what the prosecution is setting out to do, is this the cream that dr. murray wanted to go back to retrieve from the house? take a listen. >> he said that there's some cream and in michael's room or house, room, he wouldn't want the world to know about. and he requested that i or someone give him a ride back to the house to get it so the world wouldn't know about the cream. >> mr. williams the very first time you told the police about dr. murray wanting to get some cream, was it on august 31, 2009, correct? >> yes, sir. >> this was over two months after michael jackson had died. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: he said that dr. murray asked him about going back to the house. this is over two hours after they left the house. and in that time, starting at about 12:15 that afternoon, that was just triangle of phone calls between the head of security and his assistant and dr. conrad murray leaving a message on his assistant's phone saying get over here. the security guard called -- assistant called the security guard who rushed over, gets to the house and goes upstairs and sees dr. murray. he says one hand on michael jackson trying to revive him and then in the other hand, he has a cell phone and he says that the children are there witnessing all of this. michael jackson is on the floor and mouth open and eyes are open. he said the children were just devastated. take a listen. >> paris was on the ground curled up crying. prince was standing there and he was just -- he had a real shock -- slowly crying type of look on his face. >> reporter: can you imagine? because the testimony has been that michael jackson was laying there, as you said, his mouth was open. he said -- his mouth was open and his eyes were open. and he had on a kacondom cathet and his children are watching him and more of that testimony will happen today in court from the chief of security again and also from his chef. people who were there during his final moments. >> don lemon reporting live from los angeles. thank you. last chance for amanda knox's lawyers to prove she isn't a cold-blooded killer. her defense giving closing arguments this morning in italy in her murder appeal. knox, college student from seattle, was convicted of the gruesome murder of her college house mate in italy. yesterday defense lawyers for her ex-boyfriend convicted compared knox to jessica rabbit the cartoon character. jerrod lee loughner will eventually be fit to stand trial. measurable progress has been made in restoring him to competency. loughner is charged with killing six people and wounding 13 others including congresswoman gab rye el giffords and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. if convicted loughner will face the death penalty. a judge has yet to decide whether a casey anthony jailhouse tape will be released to the public. the security camera footage shows anthony reacting to news caylee's remains were found. it was sealed before her murder trial and a judge ruled it highly inflammatory and a tv station in orlando filed a motion for the judge to unseal the jailhouse tape. leaving no stone unchecked. a team of engineers will spend another day literally hanging outside of the washington monument or on to it rather, right? they will repel down the sides checking for cracks and exterior damage from last month's earthquake. the inspection began yesterday. here's what it looked like from on high. some 500 feet up. >> wow. >> that's a brave man. park officials expect the slow painstaking operation to take five days, weather permitting, of course. >> harrowing and exciting and cool to watch. >> at first i thought i wouldn't want to do it but now it would be cool. >> lots of safety ropes. with wild card berths in both leagues to line it was the wildest finish ever to baseball's regular season. started with the st. louis cardinals. routing the astros 8-0 to clinch the national league wild card in one of baseball's greatest comebacks. cards got in after the braves were beaten by the phillies 4-3 in 13 innings. loss made atlanta's collapse complete. the braves blowing an 8 1/2 game lead in the nl wild card race. >> boston red sox. 3-2 in the ninth. the sox blew the game to the baltimore orioles. it turned out -- isn't it amazing? look at the orioles cheer. the orioles were 29 games back. it is insane that the boston red sox are out of the playoffs. the atlanta braves out of the playoffs. it is just -- incredible what's happened. i must tell you, christine, the detroit tigers are in the playoffs. and they played t the new york yankees on friday. rob marciano and i are going to make a bet. he is a yankees fan and i'm a tigers fan. >> sox are out and the tampa bay rays are in because of last night's biggest shocker. race beat the yankees 8-7. longoria's stunning walkoff home run in the 12th inning. rays were down 7-0 in the game. down to their last strike before tying it with a ninth-inning homer. rays will meet the rangers. how can the postseason ever be as exciting what happened in the last 12 hours? >> it is cool that evan longoria was the guy that hit the home run to win the game. he is the team hero and -- pretty cool guy. she thinks i'm crazy. just ahead on "american morning," herman cain using strong words to explain why there aren't more black voters in the republican party and why he's optimistic it will be different this time. you have to deal with a demanding public. laundry list of domestic and international headaches. why would anyone want this job? 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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. welcome back. herman cain coming off a big upset in the florida straw poll. a black republican and also a tea party favorite was on "the situation room" and had strong opinions about why there aren't more like him. >> because many african-americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded and not even considering a conservative point of view. i have received some of that same vitriol because i'm running as a republican as a conservative. >> that's a strong word to talk about your fellow african-americans brainwashed. >> for two-thirds of them, wolf, that is the case. now, the good news is i happen to believe a 50% of the african-americans in the country are open-minded. i'm meeting them every day and stop me in the airport. this whole notion that all black americans are necessarily going to stay and vote democrat, vote for obama, that's simply not true. more and more black americans are thinking for themselves and that's a good thing. >> herman cain weighed in on the chris christie hype saying the media should focus on the candidates already declared. today the chatter is sounding rudy giuliani. he says he is still flirting with a presidential run. one of his adviser made a stop in new hampshire. >> giuliani and chris christie, sarah palin, anyone else thinking about a presidential run? you only have a little more an month to make up your minds or you miss florida. deadline to get on the florida republican primary ballot is halloween. it is the first of many deadlines candidates must meet in order to compete in several key states. that's the deadline, halloween. time now to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. our question this morning -- why would anyone want to run for president? let's face it, we are a demanding bunch. as comedian and political observer dean puts it the biggest challenge the president faces is we the people. we have become unreasonably demanding and want everything and we want it now. as in keep my taxes low but don't cut services as in you are not conservative enough or liberal enough and you have bad hair to boot. late night comedians revel in it knowing voters love it when they rip the candidates to shreds. >> president obama's hometown newspaper, "chicago tribune," called for president obama not to run for re-election. of course he is going to run. he has to run. he knows more than anyone else, there's no jobs out there. >> mitt romney comes to have a meeting with donald trump. at one point that thing on trump's head starting growling adm admit. can't believe my advisors told me not to get high. i'm telling you. >> not saying candidates don't often often derision, but seriously as a candidate can't even be who you are. >> does a title take away my freedom to call it like i see it and to affect positive change we need in this country? >> when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, he embraced the individual mandate. now he has to justify it because conservatives hate the president's health care plan. the talk back this morning, why would anyone want to run for president? why? facebook.com/americanmorning. will be intrigued to read your comments later in the show. >> i once asked an adviser to several presidential candidates why, what's the driving force? is it love of country? is it -- i just want to make sure i'm still in the game so i can get more money for speeches later? he said it is three letter, e-g-o. >> e-g-o? >> ego. do you think you are the run that can lead the free world. there's a certain something about that. >> that makes me really sad. >> rob marciano, brighten us up, please. >> he has a pretty good crib to go home, too. free room and board. >> but your workday is like every day all the time. all those speeches up can't go on vacations because people will complain because you don't deserve a vacation ever. >> it is a thankless job. i don't know many people that would want it. too bad. >> showers and thunderstorms rolling across the east coast again today with this stubborn circulation that continues to pump up tropical moisture. lit get cooler in the days to come. flash flooding with the system because obviously the ground is saturated from tropical storm lee. still across the eastern pennsylvania and upstate new york. same spots that got -- got flooded seeing flash flooding this morning near the binghamton area and also lower hudson valley up around hunter seeing rainfall heavy at times this morning. two to three inches potentially over the next day or two. flash flood watches have been posted. tremendous amounts of rain. places like allentown, pennsylvania, three inches. a things are going to start to change just a little bit. stubborn low that has been sitting and spinning here will be kicked out by this front. are which is a pretty strong one. had it has cold air behind it. also has decent winds with it. we are going to see windy conditions across the western great lakes today across chicago. could see winds gusting over 50 or 60 miles an hour at times. that may very well slow down air travel if you are flying through chicago. afternoon thunderstorms, the -- intermittent thunderstorms across new york and d.c. will cause travel delays if you are going through those cities and boston and philly. detroit. and cleveland as well. seeing delays. from iceland, cool shot. sunsets pretty. especially when you have mid-level clouds to frame things up there. as the sun gets lower in the skies, goes through more atmosphere and fires up the colors and gives you shots like that. all right. there. there is love and peace in the world regardless of who does or doesn't want to become president. >> speaking of love and peace in the world, you know the tigers play the yankees tomorrow in the playoff game. i think we should make a bet, rob marciano. >> okay. if you think you actually have a chance. i'm more than willing to make a bet. did you have something in mind? >> not yet. i am going to be thinking through the show and by 9:00 a.m. eastern time i will have an answer. >> invite -- people on twitter and facebook to tell us. >> there you go. tweet us your suggestion. >> carol will have to wear a yankees cap a whole day or something. >> that's small potatoes. you need to be more creative than that. >> still to come on the run for more than 40 years. you will hear how the fbi picked up on this fugitive's trail and able to track him down halfway around the world. so, how was school today ? i have to be a tree in the school play. good. you like trees. well, i like climbing them, but i've never been one. good point. ( captain ) this is your captain speaking. annie gets to be the princess. oh... but she has to kiss a boy. and he's dressed up like a big green frog ! ewww. ( announcer ) fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. welcome back. u.s. stock futures are up right now but those lingering concerns about europe that ended a three-day rally yesterday the dow is down 180 points or 1.5% yesterday. nasdaq and s&p down about 2%. just a few minutes ago, germany's parliament issued a measure to overhaul a european bailout fund. vote helps pave the way to create a bigger bailout fund. a bigger fund to stabilize greece and any other troubled countries and also to bolster european banks. we are also waiting for the latest reading on the number of americans filing first-time jobless claims. that report along with a new revision on just how slowly the u.s. economy grew in the second quarter, those were out in two hours and could decide the direction of trading today. the world's largest cell phone maker nokia announcing plans to cut 3500 jobs. majority of the cuts will take place overseas but some of the companies workers here in pennsylvania could be affected. hackers hit goldman sachs. it published personal information of several employees including ceo lloyd blankfein, birthday, phone numbers, legal documents. information about a police officer accused of pep